Purpose – A Swedish framework law has enabled integration between public agencies in vocational rehabilitation. With the support of this law, coordination associations can be formed to fund and organize joint activities. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how the law has been interpreted and translated into local coordination associations and how local institutional logics have developed to guide the organization of these associations. Design/methodology/approach – Data was collected through observations of meetings within two coordination associations and supplemented with documents. The material was analyzed by compilation and examination of data from field notes, whereupon the most important aspects were crystallized and framed with institutional organization theory. Findings – Two different translations of the law were seen in the associations studied: the association as an independent actor, and as an arena for its member organizations. Two subsequent institutional logics have developed, influencing decisions on autonomy, objectives and rationality for initiating and organizing in the two associations and their activities. The institutional logics are circular, further enhancing the different translations creating different forms of integration. Research implications/limitations – Both forms of integration are legitimate, but the different translations have created integration with different degrees of autonomy in relation to the member organizations. Only a long-term analysis can show whether one form of integration is more functional than the other. Originality/value – This article is based on an extensive material providing insights into a form of interorganizational integration which has been scarcely researched. The findings show how different translations can influence the integration of welfare services.

It has become increasingly common to use projects as a form of organization when implementing public policies in the area of social welfare, and in other policy areas as well. The EU, along with its various structural funds, is a key player behind this development in Europe, but the same trend can also be found at national and regional levels in other countries. In previous research, we have identified political, administrative, and organizational motives behind this trend toward more project-based organizations within public administration (Jensen et al. 2013). The problem with this trend is that this form of project organization carries inherent challenges when these projects are intended to be implemented in permanent organizational structures.

The purpose of this paper is to identify problems and challenges that public administrations face when the project is used as a structural form of organization (i.e., as a policy tool) when implementing public policy.

This article takes as its starting point the policy implementation research and especially the seminal work of Richard Matland (1995), who bases his implementation analysis on the variables policy conflict and policy ambiguity. The use of these important variables makes it possible to identify various paradigms in implementation research, as well as factors that can explain the implementation results. This research tradition is complemented by research on temporary organizations. Our analysis shows that the use of project organization puts special demands on the players involved; and that if these demands are not taken into account, there is a high risk that projects designed to bring about social change risk becoming isolated events that do not produce the intended effects.

It has become increasingly common to use the project as a form of organization when implementing public policies. Previous research has identified political, administrative and organizational motives behind this trend towards more project-based organizations within the public administration. The problem is that project-based organization carries inherent problems and special challenges when these projects are supposed to be implemented in permanent agencies and organizations. The purpose of this paper is to identify problems and challenges that public administrations face when ‘the project organization’ is used as a structural form of organization in implementing different kinds of public policies. The article takes its starting point in the policy implementation research and especially in Matland’s conflict-ambiguity model. This research tradition is complemented by a review of research on temporary organizations, which draws attention to some inherent and significant characteristics of project organizations, that is the concepts of entity, relationship and time. Our analysis shows that the use of project organization puts special demands on the players involved, and if these are not taken into account, there is a high risk that projects designed to bring about social change will not produce the effects that policymakers and citizens expect.

Organizational design is considered in policy literature as a forceful policy tool to put policy to action. However, previous research has not analyzed the project organization as a specific form of organizational design and, hence, has not given much attention to such organizations as a strategic choice when selecting policy tools. The purpose of the article is to investigate the project as a policy tool; how do such temporary organizations function as a specific form of organization when public policy is implemented? The article is based on a framework of policy implementation and is illustrated with two welfare reforms in the Swedish public sector, which were organized and implemented as project organizations. The case studies and the analysis show that it is crucial that a project organization fits into the overall governance structure when used as a policy tool. If not, the project will remain encapsulated and will not have sufficient impact on the permanent organizational structure. The concept of encapsulation indicates a need to protect the project from a potential hostile environment. The implication of this is that organizational design as a policy tool is a matter that deserves more attention in the strategic discussion on implementing public policies and on the suitability of using certain policy tools.

For several years, the development of the Swedish public sector has been accompanied by a discussion about inter-organizational collaboration, which has been examined in several national experiments. The experience, however, indicates significant difficulties in implementing collaboration in local authorities’ regular activities. This article argues that organizing inter-organizational collaboration in projects tends to be counterproductive, since the purpose of this collaboration is to increase the integration of local authorities. This article is based on case studies of three different collaboration projects. Each project is analyzed in relation to the way collaboration is organized within the project and how the relationship to the local authorities’ activities is designed. The outcome of these studies shows that while collaboration projects increase integration between the responsible authorities, the integration stays within the projects. This is due to the fact that the projects were designed as units separate from the responsible authorities. As a result, the collaboration that occurs in the projects is not implemented in the local authorities’ activities, and the viability of the increased integration of different responsible authorities does not extend beyond the projects.

The collaboration projects studied in this thesis originate from national experiments that took place from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. In those experiments, attempts were made to determine whether collaboration could, as part of the organization of the public sector, generate welfare gains for both the individual user and society as a whole. Other forms of political governance of public organizations were also tested in these experiments. Activities were very often carried out in the form of collaboration projects involving joint evaluation groups and through co-localization. The collaboration projects are about in which actors bring their different v rules, values and preconceptions, from their regular activities into a meeting with other activities with different boundaries in order to organize new boundaries. The purpose of the thesis is to achieve an understanding of why collaboration projects encounter difficulties in contributing to lasting integration between government organizations, and the importance of boundaries in the organizing of collaboration projects. The thesis is based on four articles. The first article elucidates the ways in which different boundaries are constructed when inter-organizational collaborations are being carried out. The second article develops a model for analyzing uncertainty factors in the interaction environment of the project. The third article addresses the problem of implementing, within the public sector, results from development projects in the home organization. The fourth article analyzes the ways in which collaboration projects can help to increase integration between government organizations. The results from the studies show that the collaboration projects do provide opportunities for trying out new forms of collaboration, but also that the actors in collaboration projects have to deal with multiple boundary-related problems. The construction of boundaries must, on the one hand, regulate the activities being carried out in the collaboration projects, in that the boundaries enable the actors to come together in a common activity. On the other hand, the boundaries in collaboration projects must be part of the home organizations’ activities and their boundary constructions. This leads to a complex spatial construction in which different boundaries entail different distinctions and regulations of the relationship to the outside world. In turn, this leads to problems involving the home organizations in the collaboration, resulting in the collaboration becoming confined to only the collaboration projects.

Mobilisering mot narkotika” (MOB) announced 2003 a special project support to municipalities and county councils that in collaboration want to develop models to prevent drug abuse. The municipalities that were included in the project were Botkyrka, Karlstad, Älvsbyn and Örebro. The project emphasized collaboration between all concerned parties in the health care chain. In this study of Botkyrka two measurements has been done and shown that collaboration in the health care chain has been a central theme for Botkyrka. Through MiniMaria and Beroendecentrum has Botkyrka municipality and Stockholm county council a near collaboration in the health care chain around abusers in different age groups. The educational initiative has been extensive and has mainly offered skill development to employees within established work methods. An educational initiative of this scope takes a lot of time in pretensions the wide purchasing and needs to be planned in good time. That indicates that the stem work been implemented well and been a good basis for the educa-tion's planning and implementation. The study shows also that the project in Botkyrka has organized the activity on a way that creates good conditions in order to implement the project's work and results in the activity. The project's activities have been integrated in the regular activities.

The project is often used when implementing public policies. The problem is that the project organization itself often carries inherent challenges when the outcomes of these projects are to be implemented in permanent organizational structures. We claim that the cross-boundary relationships between the time-based logic of the project organization and the routine-based logic of most public bureaucracies are not sufficiently understood in project management literature.

The purpose of this paper is to identify problems and challenges that project managers face when handling cross-boundary relationships between the time-based logic of project organizations and the routine-based logic of public bureaucracies. The analysis shows that the challenges differ partly depending on whether the task is about creating new operations or changing the current operations, partly on the number of permanent organizations that are involved. If these challenges are not taken into account there is risk that urgent change will not be implemented in public administrations.

The traditional tutoring method of the academic thesis is controlled by a set of prearranged meetings between a single instructor and one or two students. In such a setting, dialogue and directives upon the subject matter is carried out, to a great extent, in isolation. In the traditional approach instructors appear as a "master" who knows what is required from the students to reach a typical academic thesis. The modernized manuals and writings that prescribe the tutoring activities added two instructive dimensions to the traditional approach, namely, psychological and institutional dimensions (see, e.g., Frenckner 1986; Hagman 1994; Cook 1980). The objective was to change the traditional tutoring method. The inclusion of these dimensions helped the pedagogical view of tutoring to be theoretically improved. However, observation of the current tutoring practices shows that inclusions of these instructive dimensions could not substantially support that tutoring in accounting be shifted from the traditional framework. The purpose of this study has been to reflect on the practice of group tutoring (PGT) designed to increase social interaction and reduce the problem of isolation embodied in the current approach of tutoring. A phenomenological view point is applied to approach, to observe, and to conceptualize social engagement in the practice of group tutoring in the field of accounting. Some of the findings are that the approach of group tutoring helps the increase of knowledge interaction, facilitates social relationship and dialogue among the students and teachers, improve the students' performance beyond their individual capabilities, and enhances students' and teachers' engagement in searching after practical accounting knowledge related to the basis of the community of professional accountants.